Vivacious Jeans for Sew Weekly Reunion

Notions: One button, one zipper. Matching pink thread for topstitching.

Pantone Challenge colors: Vivacious

Pattern: Self drafted. Mid-high waist jeans with waistband that widens in the back. Essentially the same as my Brown Floral Print Jeans. I made some minor changes to get the side seam straighter.

Year: 2013

Time to complete: 9.25 hrs but it really shouldn’t have taken me this long.

First worn: Today

Wear again? Oh for sure! These will be a wardrobe staple.

Total Cost: $25? I used 2.5 yds and I got it at the discount fabric store, but I’ve since forgotten how much I paid. I’m guessing $10/yd. Button and zipper have been in stash forever and were probably gifts.

I always enjoyed reading contributions to the Sew Weekly although I never took part myself, and I’m thrilled to be a small part of the reunion! I’ve had the idea and fabric for these jeans for months (my records show I bought this fabric in February), but never quite seemed to make them up, even though my wardrobe is short on pants and pink jeans that fit well are guaranteed to be a staple for me (I know not everyone would consider Vivacious Pink pants to be a staple, but come on, you’ve seen the way I dress). The fact that they were the perfect color to be a part of the Sew Weekly Reunion sewalong was the perfect incentive to finally make them.

I had previously drafted a pair of jeans that I loved, wore almost every day for 3 weeks, and then they busted irrevocably at the seams because I sewed them out of fabric that was most definitely not intended to be pants. I should have known better. To make these jeans, I cut the others apart at the seams, traced them out, added a seam allowance, and voila!

Except for it didn’t turn out to be quite that simple. I sewed the jeans together (minus waistband), tried them on, and the fit was comically bad. Had I been trying to draft ill-fitting jeans for a costume I couldn’t have done better. So I ripped them apart and spent hours trying to get them to fit, changing the front and back crotch curves over and over and over. I absolutely couldn’t figure out why the crotch looked so horrible. I finally threw them in a wad on the floor and gave up on completing the challenge. And then I pulled them out this weekend, gave it one last shot, and bam, easy peasy. They fit. I am still clueless as to why I had such a hard time with them the first time around and got it no problem this time.

They’re still not perfect. The denim has waaay more stretch than I thought, which would make them ideal for a skin-tight pant, but that’s not what I wanted. I think this slightly relaxed fit with a stretchy fabric looks a bit like the pants are just stretched out, but I’m done fighting with them. And they’re totally wearable. And they fit waaay better than off-the-rack, so I’m going to be satisfied for now. All I have to do is re-sew on the button, since it popped off during my photoshoot, and start wearing them on a very regular basis.

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Comments 17

Wow, I love your jeans! I can’t think that jeans are very easy to make and these look so professional. I love the colour vivacious, and the name, and also did my sew weekly challenge in this colour. I’m sure you will get lots of wear out of these, enjoy!

These are amazing! I haven’t yet tried pants, but I will at some point… I think the relaxed fit looks really good. I’m not that comfortable in a tight fit, so I love to see examples that are more my style. And awesome color! I would so wear those all the time :) Maybe I need to be a copycat…

These look terrific. I am nervously planning to make my first pair of jeans later this year, and I hope they look half as good as yours do, if not nearly as fabulous (because I am going with boring indigo instead of vivacious).

I had the biggest mental block against jeans for the longest time. And then I just tried them and everything clicked into place. They do require a bit fussier crotch/butt/hip fitting than most pants because they are typically worn tighter, but it’s totally doable. And the rest of the construction is not more difficult than anything else, as long as you don’t let you head get you all worked up about it!

Thanks! My brain definitely needs to let certain things ferment for a while before working the out. Aha moments often come in the shower, but in this case it may have been after a couple weeks of ignoring and a couple glasses of wine.

These are fantastic! I’m amazed and jealous all at the same time! I have some way-too-stretchy denim in my stash, and have been hiding from it after struggling with the topstitching on my last pair of shorts. : ( Congrats on powering through.

Thanks! Sorry you’ve had some similar struggles. It honestly didn’t occur to me to pull on the fabric to see how stretchy it was at the fabric store. I futz with every other fabric I buy so I’m not sure why denim was exempted in my head. But it won’t be in the future!